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Tag Archives: Picture

Let’s be honest, it was bound to happen sooner rather than later. Four months after JRR Tolkien‘s estate settled a lawsuit with Warner Bros. Studios regarding the profits from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Amazon Studios has announced a multi-season LOTR television series is in the works exclusively for the company’s streaming service. The series will reportedly cover stories from Tolkien’s early writings, focusing on material pre-dating the events in the book and film trilogies.

Amazon acquired the rights to the series for a whopping $200 million, but the series is expected to cost a further $150 million in production costs per season. Given the popularity of the content, however, expenses don’t seem to be a cause for concern. A rep for Amazon was quoted in a statement as saying, “The Lord of the Rings is a cultural phenomenon that has captured the imagination of generations of fans through literature and the big screen. We are honored to be working with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line on this exciting collaboration for television and are thrilled to be taking The Lord of the Rings fans on a new epic journey in Middle Earth.” Continue reading →

Reports are now confirmed that actor Bill Paxton passed away this Oscar-weekend at the age of 61 due to complications from surgery. Paxton began his career in Hollywood doing art department and background work before he was cast in a small cameo in The Terminator by director James Cameron in 1984. Since then, Paxton has gone on to star in many roles in an impressive number of iconic films. He again teamed up with Cameron for Aliens as Private Hudson in 1986, and has starred in blockbusters like Tombstone (1993), True Lies (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), Titanic (1997), U-571 (2000), Vertical Limit (2000), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and Nightcrawler (2014). His most recent project was the lead in a television adaptation of director Antione Fuqua’s 2001 cop-drama Training Day.

In addition to acting, Paxton also directed a number of pictures. He directed himself and co-stars Matthew McConaughey and Powers Boothe in the violent FBI drama Frailty (2001), and Shia LaBeouf in The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005). His final role will be in a film called The Circle, opposite Emma Watson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Beauty and the Beast), Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Big Short), and Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Bridge of Spies). His contribution to film throughout the years will surely be missed in the years to come. Thanks Bill for all of your great work. Our thoughts are with your family and friends. Continue reading →

Happy Halloween! October is traditionally known for the fall season and for hosting Halloween on the last day of the month. Likewise film distributors tend to look at October as a good time to release horror and slasher films for Halloween on fight-seeking audiences across the country, and around the world. October, however, has a long history of major motion picture releases that is not strictly limited to the horror genre. Read on to see our list of impressive October releases, and enjoy your Halloween Weekend! Continue reading →

Director Sydney Lumet‘s 1973 undercover police drama Serpico earned Al Pacino his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor. While it was another in a long-running streak of Oscar nominations for Pacino that resulted in no wins until 1992’s Scent of a Woman, Serpico‘s other Oscar nomination was for Best Adapted Screenplay for screenwriters Waldo Salt (Midnight Cowboy, The Day of the Locust) and Norman Wexler (Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive). Although Serpico proved to be the last Oscar-worthy project of Wexler’s, Waldo Salt had a much longer, and much darker story in Hollywood screenwriting history.

Waldo Salt was born on October 18, 1914 and grew up in Chicago an accomplished academic. He was so accomplished, in fact, that he graduated from Stanford University at the same time his friends were graduating from high school. Shortly thereafter, Salt was in Hollywood working as a screenwriter for MGM. There he worked on and assisted with various writing projects, but his first solo writing adaptation was with a 1937 film called The Bride Wore Red. The next year, Salt joined the American Communist Party, putting himself on the radar for the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Red Scare/McCarthy era 12 years later. Continue reading →

August 15th is a very significant date in the history of film…for two reasons. We’ll cover them here in order by date, but both are, no doubt, some of the most memorable advances in movies and storytelling.

On August 15, 1934, director Christy Cabanne (The Mummy’s Hand, Scared to Death) released the first audio-visual film adaptation of Charlotte Bronte‘s famous novel Jane Eyre. Excluding the popularity of the novel, the film was part of a series of classic-literary adaptations produced by Monogram Pictures between 1933-1934. Four classic 19th-century novels were all made into big-screen adaptations that featured sound, a new technology for the era. The novels were Oliver Twist, Black Beauty, Jane Eyre, and The Moonstone. Cabanne was well-known at the time as a silent film director, but was also beginning to indulge in sound-projects. For the movie, which only runs a total of 62 minutes, the studio recruited actors Colin Clive, best known for the role of Dr. Frankenstein in the original 1931 James Whales’ classic, and newcomer Virginia Bruce (Born to Dance, The Invisible Woman) to star as Jane Eyre. Oscar-nominated screenwriter Adele Comandini (Beyond Tomorrow, Three Smart Girls) to adapt Bronte’s novel for the film (which admittedly must have been a challenge considering Jane Eyre runs for a total of 38 chapters with 400+ pages in most publications).

Also on August 15th, but in 1979, Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, The Conversation) released his world-renowned masterpiece, Apocalypse Now. The film is famous not only for its cinematic brilliance, but also for its whirlwind of a production Continue reading →

Next week on July 21-24, the 47th Annual Comic Con International will take place at the San Diego Convention Center. This year will play host to an impressive line-up of films, both new and old. The festival features a series of discussions, forums, and film showings. This year’s special guests include Stan Lee, Christopher James Priest, J. Michael Straczynski, G. Willow Wilson, Jason Aaron, Michael Barrier, and Allen Bellman. Some of this year’s movie highlights include Labyrinth (1986), Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), Battlestar Galactica (1978), Highlander (1986), Flash Gordon (1980), Batman the Movie (1966), Top Gun (1986), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Deadpool (2016), and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Click here to see the full schedule at the Comic Con 2016 website.

A new documentary titled De Palma is seeing release this week from directors Jake Paltrow (The Good Night, Boardwalk Empire) and Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg). The film is a chronicle of the life and work of acclaimed director Brian De Palma, whose major body of work has spanned from the 1970s to the present with films like Carrie (1976), a Stephen King novel, Scarface (1983) with Al Pacino (The Godfather, Scent of a Woman) and Michelle Pfeiffer (The Fabulous Baker Boys, Batman Returns), and The Untouchables (1987) with Kevin Costner (Waterworld, Dances with Wolves), Robert De Niro (Goodfellas, Casino), and Sean Connery (Diamonds are Forever, The Hunt for Red October). Despite all of the acclaim and success earned by these films, De Palma is one of the many artists who has never been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Untouchables saw Sean Connery win his first Oscar in 1988, Continue reading →

Finally after months of anticipation and sitting through rounds of film festivals around the globe, Oscar-winner Steven Spielberg‘s (Jaws, Saving Private Ryan) new Cold-War drama Bridge of Spies is opening on big screens across the country this week. Starring Spielberg-regular Tom Hanks (Catch Me If You Can, Forrest Gump) in the lead role, the film focuses on James B. Donovan, an attorney who was sent to Soviet Russia by the CIA in order to negotiate the release of suspected U-2 Spy Plane pilot Francis G. Powers. The script was originally penned by screenwriter Matt Charman, but was then re-worked by Oscar-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (Oh Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country For Old Men) before Spielberg began the process of principle photography. Also starring in the film are actors Mark Rylance (The Other Boleyn Girl, Anonymous), Domenick Lombardozzi (Phone Booth, The Wire), Victor Verhaeghe (August Rush, The Wolf of Wall Street), Alan Alda (MASH, The Aviator), and Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone, Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), with Austin Stowell (Behind the Candelabra, Whiplash) starring as Powell. This will be Spielberg’s first directorial project since 2012’s Lincoln, which earned the director two Oscar-nods for Best Director and Best Picture. Look for Bridge of Spies in theaters this Friday. The trailer is available here on MADE.

Indie films hardly get the public recognition they deserve outside of the circle of internationally known film festivals, or national premieres outside of New York City or Los Angeles (the recently released Mr. Holmes with Sir Ian McKellen and Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence serve as perfect examples). But that’s not to say I wouldn’t recommend seeing any of these. This week several such projects will be seeing limited releases on big screens across the country. First on the list is Grandma from writer/director Paul Weitz (About A Boy, In Good Company), which follows a young teenager, Sage, as she goes to her grandmother, Elle Reid, for help when finding herself in a tight spot. The two embark on a day-long journey of self discovery and life reflection that brings both a sense of comfort and motivation to the audience. Actresses Lily Tomlin (Nine to Five, I Heart Huckabees), Julia Garner (Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Perks of Being a Wallflower), and Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Into The Wild) will be leading the cast on this one. Next on the list is The Last Picture Show director Peter Bogdanovich‘s She’s Funny That Way, starring Imogen Poots (28 Weeks Later, Filth), Owen Wilson (Wedding Crashers, Midnight in Paris), Jennifer Aniston (Horrible Bosses, We’re The Millers), and Kathryn Hahn (Step Brothers, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). Given the plot of this one revolves around a love-triangle on the set of a Broadway production in New York, I would recommend this one as a good date-night movie. Last, but not least, is another romantic comedy (you would think it’s Valentine’s Day weekend!) called Some Kind of Beautiful from director Tom Vaughn (What Happens in Vegas, Extraordinary Measures). Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye, The Thomas Crown Affair), Salma Hayek (From Dusk Til Dawn, Desperado), Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Awake), and Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange, The Artist) lead the cast in this tale of a Cambridge poetry professor who comes to a type of midlife crises when he begins to reevaluate his life. All three selections are rated R due to some pretty heavy content, but I think they are all definitely worth seeing, so be sure to check your local theater listings for showtimes in your area, and as always…Enjoy!!

Composer John Williams (left) and director Steven Spielberg (right) have worked together on more than 25 projects, including Jaws, Indiana Jones, E.T., Hook, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, and War of the Worlds.

The latest project from acclaimed director Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Saving Private Ryan) seems to be getting closer to completion as we approach it’s October release date. Now titled Bridge of Spies, the movie stars Oscar-winner Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Road to Perdition) as attorney James Donovan, who negotiated the release of KGB-held U-2 spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers after he was captured flying over Soviet airspace and imprisoned for espionage in the 1960s. The film’s title actually refers to a real bridge located in West Berlin that served as an exchange of captured spies by the various US and Soviet intelligence agencies. Making up the supporting cast includes actors Amy Rylan (Gone Baby Gone, Birdman), Mark Rylance (The Other Boelyn Girl, Blitz), Alan Alda (MASH, The Aviator), and Austin Stowell (Behind The Candelabra, Whiplash) in a script by Matt Charman and treatments by Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, No Country For Old Men). It was also recently announced that Oscar-winning composer John Williams (Star Wars, Schindler’s List) will be composing the score for the new drama, which will be Steven Spielberg’s first directorial release since Lincoln in 2012. Lincoln received a Best Picture nomination and won Daniel Day Lewis a third Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role, but no pressure on Spielberg or Hanks! All in all, it sounds like we’ve got a pretty great movie to look forward to in the fall, so stay tuned for an upcoming trailer.